Bale binders, for example those described in Swedish Patent No. 509,532, operate intermittently and feed wire for binding it around a bale, for example a paper pulp bale. After a first binding around operation, the bale is usually moved for a new binding around operation in parallel with and at a distance from the first one. The cycle time of the bale binder can be less than 5 seconds, and it could be reduced still more if the wire speed and wire acceleration could be increased, but then the risk of snarling and knot formation on the wire at the reeling-off device increases. The acceleration and speed of the wire, therefore, must be balanced against the risk of process interruption.
One object of the present invention is to render it possible to achieve higher wire acceleration and wire speed during intermittent unreeling of wire from a wire coil.